Bob Bromley

Thanks for the remarks from the Minister. Again, we want to see action here and less studying. Surely, we must know something about why this is happening. Is it bad decisions? Are some people making bad decisions? If so, what are we doing about correcting those decisions? You know, bad decisions, I’m going to gamble this week with my income support and then starve later. That’s a bad decision. What are we doing to help people make better decisions, if that’s the case?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wondered, I know we didn’t have a record number of fires, but I understand that a number of them were close to communities and were particularly intense. I believe the information that I saw was that we fought a very small percentage of forest fires out there. I’m wondering if the Minister can say what percentage of forest fires we fought this year and what the trend is over time. My impression is that it’s going down over time, that we’re choosing to fight fewer and there might be good reasons for that, but if that’s happening and we’re still having exceptional...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to follow up on some really distressing reports we’ve heard on CBC over the last couple of days about food not being on the table of our people across the North, and the failure of our food banks. Our people are, obviously, suffering here. If they didn’t have country food they would be starving. I would like to ask – recognizing that there are ripple effects through our families, education, health, so on – first of all, what is the situation from the Minister’s understanding? To what...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have to question the decision against the community’s wishes for a Whati transmission line design, when I believe one of the principles of this government is to support local energy generation. I’d like to ask what the reasoning is. How does this support that principle when we know that there is, for example, a proposal for a mineral development in the area, which is currently proposed to use diesel generation of power and increase our greenhouse gas emissions, lend no support in terms of economic development and jobs and so on for people, when we could be developing...

I appreciate the Minister’s remarks. Have we done a review on whether we want these services carried out by a contract versus public employees?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just would like some background on this. I thought that this work had been brought back into the public service fold some time ago. There were some issues early in the 16th and there was quite a review done. I wonder if I could get the background behind this. It seems like a substantial amount. I don’t know what the total contract is, but this is an area where, obviously, we want the highest standards. When we didn’t have them, our people suffered and our system was not working well. If I could get some background that gives some perspectives on that, thank you.

Thanks for that explanation. It does seem logical and like a reasonable investment to me. I did, however, hear the words “we hope” and “we expect to see” and whatnot, and I would agree that that’s a reasonable expectation. I agree on the hope part. Obviously, we would hope there was some analysis done that would indicate the high probability of savings here. I expect that’s the case.

This is a complex thing to measure, but will we have some monitoring in place and an ultimate evaluation plan? I know, over the years, we’ve seen a lot of back and forth within and between departments and across...

That’s all I had, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe this was the Housing Corporation we were on and I’m wondering if I can get an explanation of the amount planned for the NWT Energy Plan solar panel installation in Inuvik. What exactly is the Housing Corporation plan with solar panel installations? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation on highways. I’ve noted that people driving to the Yellowknife Airport can now see the work on realignment of Highway No. 4 around the Giant Mine site is underway. I understand that the work will include not only the creation of a safer and better road that avoids the Giant Mine site, but some improvement to the highway onward to the Yellowknife River Bridge might be included.

On behalf of the public and my constituents, can the Minister provide us with some information on the extent and schedule for the work?